Automatic vigilance: does emotional state affect search times for positively and negatively valenced targets?

Author

Stephen Long, Westminister College

Periodical Title

Modern Psychological Studies

Volume

14

Number

1

Page Numbers

pages 27-35

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Date

2008

Abstract

Recent research has suggested that specific emotions, such as fear, may impact visual acuity (Phelps, Ling, & Carrasco, 2006). To see if emotion can influence higher order perceptions, an affective priming visual search task (APVST) was used to examine the effect of either fear or joy on participants' ability to find an associated search stimulus. A face showing either fear or joy was presented to induce a mood state, and participants searched for either a spider or a flower in a wooded background. It was found that search times were faster for the spider, but mood induction seemed to have little effect. The robust phenomenon of automatic vigilance and its contributing factors are discussed, along with its relation to mood congruence. The findings suggest that no mood congruence occurs, but that search times are reduced when the target is threatening.

Subject

Psychology

Discipline

Psychology

Document Type

article

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

9 leaves

Language

English

Call Number

BF1 .M63 v. 14 no. 1 2008

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Recommended Citation

Long, Stephen (2008) "Automatic vigilance: does emotional state affect search times for positively and negatively valenced targets?," Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 14: No. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol14/iss1/4